04 February, 2016

Biotech lobby’s push for new GMOs to escape regulation

The
biotech industry is staging an audacious bid to have a whole new
generation of genetic engineering techniques excluded from European
regulations. The pending decision of the European Commission on the
regulation of these so-called 'new GMOs' represents a climax point in
the ongoing below-the-radar attack by industry on GM laws.

Corporate
Europe Observatory

The EU's GM
regulations have long been a thorn in the biotech industry's side.
For their lobbyists, the Commission decision presents a unique
opportunity to twist the interpretation of these rules – including
the very definition of a GMO – so as to exclude the new
genetic engineering techniques from their scope. This goes
alongside ongoing industry attacks on the application of the
precautionary principle – the basis of EU GM regulations – to
novel food production techniques.

New genetic
engineering techniques, which have emerged since Europe’s GMO law
was introduced in 2001, are currently being applied by developers to
food crops, trees, farm animals and insects. If the industry lobby
campaign is successful, new GM organisms and foods – produced by
techniques including oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis (ODM),
agroinfiltration and zinc finger nuclease technology (ZFN) - could
enter the environment and the food chain untested, untraceable and
unlabeled. Dozens of patents have already been filed in this
field by the big agrochemical corporations like Bayer, BASF, Dow
Agrosciences and Monsanto.

Due to
widespread consumer rejection of GMOs, invisibility is vital for the
commercial success of any new genetically engineered product in
Europe. Their unregulated mass release could however have
far-reaching consequences for the environment, food safety and
consumer choice. Therefore, calls from farmers and environmental
groups to regulate the new GM are increasing. The techniques in
question each bring their own set of risks and uncertainties.
Technical reports and legal analyses by government bodies and NGOs
have concluded that GM 2.0 should not escape the EU GM regulations.1
Whilst some risks are similar to those associated with GM 1.0, there
are also serious additional concerns.

To further
its cause, industry has set up a dedicated, EU-level lobbying vehicle
– the New Breeding Techniques Platform – with the mission of
having as many of the new GM techniques as possible excluded from EU
GM regulations. This platform is run by Schuttelaar &
Partners, a Dutch lobby and PR firm with a shady reputation for
pro-GM lobbying. At the same time, individual companies have been
pressing various European governments to clarify the legal status of
the new genetic engineering techniques, while announcing plans to
field trial them in those countries. Furthermore, certain
governments have been actively advocating the deregulation of new GM
techniques at the EU level.

The ongoing
negotiations around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) are an additional source of political pressure on
European decision makers. In this context, industry lobby groups have
presented the regulation of new GM techniques as a trade concern to
both US and EU officials, claiming that the innovative nature and
competitiveness of the European plant breeding (read: biotech) sector
is at stake.

After
contemplating this question for eight years, the Commission finally
plans to publish a draft decision in February 2016. This briefing,
based on documents released by the European Commission following
freedom of information requests, illuminates the efforts made over
the past three years by the industry lobby to have the new GM
techniques deregulated. In addition, a first case study highlights
the Dutch lobby campaign for the deregulation of cisgenesis, and a
second one looks at Canadian company Cibus's push for the
deregulation of its ODM oilseed rape.